Sarah Watt’s The Way of the Birds (2000) follows Maisie, a young girl whose fascination with birds transforms the way she sees the world. Like Watt herself, Maisie uses drawing to imagine places beyond everyday life, inviting us to see the world from new perspectives.
Trained as a fine artist, Watt made storyboarding central to her creative process. She used sketches to test ideas, shape emotion and gradually transform drawings into moving images. The storyboards, sketches and film stills on display trace that journey, revealing how imagined worlds first take shape on the page before coming to life on screen.
An award-winning Australian director, writer and animator, Watt embraced the expressive possibilities of drawing. Her hand-drawn films carry the warmth and immediacy of the artist’s hand, reminding us that animation is not simply about movement, but about transforming the way we see the world.
Works in this group
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Collection
In ACMI's collection
On display until
28 February 2027
ACMI: Gallery 1
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
Curatorial section
The Story of the Moving Image → Moving Worlds → MW-01. Storyboarding → MW-01-C02